About two weeks before Christmas, Deacon, an 85-lb German shepherd, went missing from his family home in rural Stuart, Va.
During the first couple of days, Pamela Holt, her husband Keith, and their daughter Brooklyn, 3, weren’t terribly worried because they figured their nearly two-year-old pet was running in the fields behind their home.

“We have a lot of land and thought Deacon might be enjoying the outdoors,” Holt, who works as a teller for SunTrust bank, “But we soon got worried and called the area dog warden, the pound and the sheriff’s office. After two weeks, we gave up, fearing he had died or was stolen.”Deacon, a gift from Holt to her husband Keith, a teacher and football coach, had become a beloved family member, and everyone was upset. But a curious call in late February from a man in Deland, Fla., changed everything.

“A male voice on the other end said he thought he may have Deacon,” Holt “I was angry at first and thought he was a prankster trying to play a joke on us … I nearly hung up on him.”The man, who said he was from Animal Control in Deland, told Holt he was looking at her dog. Holt said she thought Deacon was dead. But when he asked her if the dog’s name was Bruno, Holt went crazy with joy.More